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The Brief: Baylor boosters call for reform

Amid scrutiny over how Baylor University handled allegations of sexual assault against football players and other students, a group of boosters asked for more transparency from the school's board of regents.

Baylor University alumni and donors listen to speakers gathered at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame museum in Waco on Nov. 10, 2016.Photo credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune

The Big Story

Prominent names connected to Baylor University gathered near the school's campus Thursday to plead for reform in the wake of the school's widely criticized handling sexual assaults on campus. Here's what went down:

• The boosters focused most of the blame on the university board of regents. The group stopped short of calling for a formal removal of board members but asked for more transparency and for the release of more information from an investigation commissioned by the school into how the school handles allegations of sexual assault.

• Baylor has been in turmoil since August 2015, when football player Sam Ukwuachu was convicted of raping another student. Similar other cases soon came to light, and law firm Pepper Hamilton, which investigated the school’s policies and practices, said unnamed football coaches met with women who said they were assaulted by football players, but that the coaches didn’t report those accusations.

• In May, football coach Art Briles and university president Ken Starr lost their jobs after a long investigation — enraging some football fans and players. On Thursday the board didn't issue an opinion on whether he should have been fired, but John Eddie Williams, a Houston lawyer and Baylor donor, said he found Briles to be “a man of great integrity.” In a letter to to the "Baylor Family" hours after the meeting Thursday, however, Murff said the board agreed that Briles was not coming back.

• In his letter, Murff said Baylor regents are vowing to be more forthcoming with the public."Rather than stay silent, the University's senior leadership recognized that the Baylor Family deserved to know more about the magnitude of the problem and about the reasons why we responded so forcefully to the Pepper Hamilton findings," Murff wrote.

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